This disclosure relates to a vehicle or truck mounted fork lift apparatus capable of lifting a load from the ground and moving the load to a traveling position on the vehicle so that the load may be transported to a desired location and then unloaded from the vehicle.
On farms and construction sites, for example, it is often necessary to move heavy loads (e.g., a pallet load of feed bags or of roofing shingles) and a fork lift is not available to load the load or unload the load onto a vehicle for transport of the load from one site to another. Further, farmers and contractors often do not have a truck that they can dedicate to hauling such loads, but rather most have a truck that they could so use if truck did not have to be dedicated to hauling such loads, but rather could be used as a pickup or a flatbed truck when not being used to haul such loads.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,583,907, 6,799,935, 7,717,662, 8,192,130, 8,221,048, 8,322,968, 8,534,981, 8,973,898, and 8,974,169 that describe various forklift and lift devices that can be attached to or used with a truck, such as a pickup or flatbed truck, to lift a heavy load and in some instances to transport that load on the bed of the truck and to unload the load in another location.